DVD Shopping Bag: The Rites of Spring (Mania.com)

By:Robert T. Trate Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2012Source: Mania.com

What sways you for movies these days? Back in the day, I would walk into the video store where I worked and pick films based on the box. Word of mouth is also a good way to discover hidden gems that may have alluded you. The video store supplied that in droves along with what films people were constantly asking for, which, in turn, made me want to see it.

Today, trailers are uploaded to YouTube and IMDB and, with a few keystrokes, I have everything I need to know about a film. When I first encountered the Rites of Spring, it was the poster that caught my eye. I found some concept art and the trailer. The grind house style of filmmaking is always a double edged sword, but I thought I’d take the chance. Who knows, I might just be surprised. There was one other factor that made me decide to pick up Rites of Spring, the distributor. IFC, The Independent Film Chanel, carries some weight with me. I love what they have brought to cable and to distribute a horror film, well, that really had me interested.

The plot is simple enough as it involves kidnapping and extortion. A young girl is going to be taken from a very wealthy man and held for ransom. The four kidnappers don’t plan on hurting the little girl. No, they only want the money. Immediately, we can see that one of the kidnappers, Ben (AJ Bowen), is uneasy about this. He has financial problems and this will be the end to his dilemmas. After taking the girl, Ben’s boss, Paul (Sonny Marinelli), goes outside “the plan” and ups the stakes by killing the girl’s mother. Unbeknownst to our kind hearted kidnapper, this is now a murder and extortion heist.

All this happens as we learn about the characters in a very low budget and straight forward setting, which there is absolutely nothing wrong with. Reservoir Dogs has one main location and the acting just takes over the piece. Here, however, our cast of thieves is unlikable, stereotypical and just dull.

The hook to the film is that the gang’s rally point is located off a main stretch of road just a few miles from a farm. As we have seen in the prologue, this is no ordinary farm. The old farmer has, meanwhile, kidnapped two young ladies and strung them up. First, their blood is to be fed to the creature living in the barn’s cellar to test. Then, they are stripped naked and have an animal’s fake head placed on top of their own. Finally, they are presented (in whole) to the barn creature. When this monster is revealed, it is horrible, hideous, and looks like a guy in rotting scarecrow mask. It’s as if Michael Myers was kept in the basement all these years instead of at the sanatorium. Can you guess where where our victims and kidnappers end up running to when everything goes wrong?

Obviously, this film is a low budget/ independent attempt at a Dusk till Dawn type movie. Where Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriquez had the advantage of a built in audience and good actors to play with, The Rites of Spring has zilch. The film lacked little in surprise or suspense. Our creature/ killer called “Worm Face” does everything you would expect a character of his nature to do. He is unstoppable, methodical, and ever so persistent. So much so that the film never actually ends. When all was (sort of) finished, I felt as if I just had my time stolen from me, which is never a good thing.

So where does the fault lay? A clever poster? The PR firm hired to cut the trailer? No, I blame IFC. The label used to carry some weight as a distributor and marketer of independent films that had some caliber. This was shlock, gore, and stupidity with no redeeming qualities. It will be a long time before I trust the IFC label again.

ACTION / ADVENTURE / KUNG FU/ THRILLERS / WESTERNS

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